There was a shop here in town that had a Ford "Durango" with a 2.3 carb'd turbo and 4 spd. trans.
A Durango is kinda like a Ranchero in the Fairmont bodystyle.
I used to see the guy speeding through town in it quite often, then for some reason or other, it burned to the ground.
I later seen the burned shell at the scrap yard sitting in a pile with other cars stacked on top of it.
Never seen another one since.
Well if it was a 2.3 turbo, that explains why it burnt! The SVO I had....electrical gremlins out the ka-zoo, but it ran like a raped ape (when it ran). I'd love to find another Fairmont with a 2.3 and do some engine work. I have a friend that has a '78 that originally came with a 2.3 and a 4 speed. He won't sell it to me for anything! He's working on gathering parts for a big block swap.
Believe it or not, those old fairmonts are pretty light for being a large bodied car. Dad's weighed 2626 the day we picked it up, complete with a pile of someone's wet clothes that was still stashed in that HUGE trunk. It had a 250/C4. I drove that thing to the truck scale, weighed it and put in another 3 quarts of oil (to make up for what leaked out/burned in the last 15 minutes), and drove it home where the engine was rattling. Total trip was...about 18 miles give or take, including the detour to the scales. When I pulled in the driveway it was out of oil. Basically, his is still the stock body & floors, but we put in a leaf spring rear end. Why leafs? Because at that time, we had no idea that the factory Triangulated 4-link was basically the same as the FOX mustangs. We just ripped the stuff out (including the POS 7.5 rear end) and fabbed in a 8" from a Maverick. We've since gone to a 9" for better gear selection. It's running 28x9 slicks that tuck nicely under the quarters. I would be nicer if it had a set of 14x32's, IMO. If I knew then what I know now (about the factory rear suspension) than Id have left it alone, but with adjustable uppers & lowers. I did some figures on paper and based on what I "figured", the factory rear suspension is pretty well set up in reguards to instant center, for drag racing. Keep in mind that the Futuras had aluminum bumpers from the factory...fairly light to begin with...and they can be gutted down even further. I would suspect that it would be possible to get it down to around 2000 lbs with some careful work. Even with a mild 302 that would be a great sleeper!
There used to be a guy here in town that did up a '79 Futura complete with a 4.6 SOHC from a '00 Mustang, 5 speed trans, all the mustang stuff. I'm sure he just swapped K members. I saw him once down at O'Reilly's but never got to talk to the guy much. Neat project. Someone T-boned him at an intersection not far from my house and demolished the car. The driver at fault ran the red light...which I've seen literally hundreds of times at that intersection. The Fairmont was totalled and the driver spent quite a bit of time in the hospital, and then went on to a LOT of therapy afterwards. It is my understanding that he still is not 100% 2 1/2 years later.
Interestingly enough, Bob Glidden won a LOT of races in a Fairmont Futura. Someday, I would like to backhalf Dad's car and make it into a replica of Bob's 1979 car except the engine. Dad still thinks that his 347 is going to run great. It very well might...at least until it spilts the block. If it were me, I'd have put a 408 in it and been done with it.
"it is better to appear ignorant than to open your mouth and remove all doubt"--Mark Twain
[ This Message was edited by: mavman on 9/13/06 11:19am ]